Copy-controlled, my foot

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Last week I bought Annie Lennox’s last CD, Bare, and it’s copy-controlled.

How does it work, you ask? Well actually it’s got an ’autorun’ file, so that when you put it in your computer’s CD drive, the CD does not play as a plain CD but a program is executed.

Just hold the SHIFT key and you’re on, you can play it in Winamp like any other CD... and of course create MP3s in the blink of an eye. Yes, I did test it. The french law authorises you to copy works of art as a personal backup, in as many copies as you like.

What’s really f*cking boring is that the CD doesn’t, won’t, play on my car’s CD player.

Technologies are supposed to be portable and usable, not to complicate life even more. Hello BMG, do you mind me listening to the CD I payed for on my player of choice?

The next ’copy-controlled’ CD will stay in its rack. I won’t buy it.

How on earth do you want to prevent piracy when in the blink of an eye the protection is cracked on a computer, but the CD cannot even be played on a plain car CD player? It’s piracy fodder, no less.

You know how I can listen to this CD on my car? Easy: I’ll have to rip it to MP3 and then burn a new audio CD with the MP3s. Bravo BMG, bravo. Congratulations. Don’t say you don’t want me to make MP3s again.